I guess for me, when I think of love poetry, I think of the articulation of the feelings of affection and all of the other complicated emotions that come with the benefits and liabilities of loving. The love we most often think of in poetry is romantic and often accompanied by descriptive and metaphoric language to express how the object of love is seen and considered by the one that loves him or her. In terms of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, there is already a frame of context given to the reader in the introduction. We know that these are poems she wrote about her and her husband’s courtship. Her artistry is evident in all of the sonnets as she makes classical literary and religious references and allusions. For me though, it was “Sonnet VI” that to me was the most romantically expressive and my personal favorite.
The 6th sonnet begins with a simple directive which connects the last line of the previous sonnet: “Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand/ Henceforward in thy shadow. Nevermore/ Alone upon the threshold of my door/Of individual life.” (lns 1-4). For me, what this conveys is that even if the object of her love leaves, his presence will be felt and she will no longer be alone. While this can have romantic connotations, it can also illustrate professional concerns. EBB has made a very sizeable name for herself in terms of her profession. She may be illustrating, with some trepidation, the consequence of a union with Browning. She writes that as she leaves the “individual life, I shall command/ The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand/Serenely in the sunshine as before,/ Without the sense of that which I forbore,” (lns 4-7). In these lines there appears to be both a willingness to let go of her individuality, but not without realizing what she is giving up to be in this union.
Finally, the end of the poem, for me is this the most beautiful and poetic. There is a real sense of merging when she writes, “…leaves thy heart in mine/ With pulses that beat double. What I do/ And what I dream include thee, as the wine/ Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue/ God for myself, He hears that name of thine,/ And sees within my eyes, the tears of two” (lns 9-14). This ending is in great contrast to the beginning of the sonnet. In the beginning, there is an order to “go,” but she makes it clear that even if they are separated by a lack of presence, they are merging together at least in her body, like grapes into wine. There heart beats “double” and her eye have the “tears of two.”
What is so powerful about this sonnet is that, while the merging is indeed beautiful it is not without the loss of individuality and single identity. Love is not without its sacrifice on its wine-soaked altar. There is always something spilled in the making of it. Merging into something new and wondrous, yes, of course, but not without the remnants and memories of the skins, and the leaves and the vines from which it came.6-24 Hummel Love
Jill Hummel Welchman
Reading Response-Love
Dr. Williamson
June 24, 2014
I guess for me, when I think of love poetry, I think of the articulation of the feelings of affection and all of the other complicated emotions that come with the benefits and liabilities of loving. The love we most often think of in poetry is romantic and often accompanied by descriptive and metaphoric language to express how the object of love is seen and considered by the one that loves him or her. In terms of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, there is already a frame of context given to the reader in the introduction. We know that these are poems she wrote about her and her husband’s courtship. Her artistry is evident in all of the sonnets as she makes classical literary and religious references and allusions. For me though, it was “Sonnet VI” that to me was the most romantically expressive and my personal favorite.
The 6th sonnet begins with a simple directive which connects the last line of the previous sonnet: “Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand/ Henceforward in thy shadow. Nevermore/ Alone upon the threshold of my door/Of individual life.” (lns 1-4). For me, what this conveys is that even if the object of her love leaves, his presence will be felt and she will no longer be alone. While this can have romantic connotations, it can also illustrate professional concerns. EBB has made a very sizeable name for herself in terms of her profession. She may be illustrating, with some trepidation, the consequence of a union with Browning. She writes that as she leaves the “individual life, I shall command/ The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand/Serenely in the sunshine as before,/ Without the sense of that which I forbore,” (lns 4-7). In these lines there appears to be both a willingness to let go of her individuality, but not without realizing what she is giving up to be in this union.
Finally, the end of the poem, for me is this the most beautiful and poetic. There is a real sense of merging when she writes, “…leaves thy heart in mine/ With pulses that beat double. What I do/ And what I dream include thee, as the wine/ Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue/ God for myself, He hears that name of thine,/ And sees within my eyes, the tears of two” (lns 9-14). This ending is in great contrast to the beginning of the sonnet. In the beginning, there is an order to “go,” but she makes it clear that even if they are separated by a lack of presence, they are merging together at least in her body, like grapes into wine. There heart beats “double” and her eye have the “tears of two.”
What is so powerful about this sonnet is that, while the merging is indeed beautiful it is not without the loss of individuality and single identity. Love is not without its sacrifice on its wine-soaked altar. There is always something spilled in the making of it. Merging into something new and wondrous, yes, of course, but not without the remnants and memories of the skins, and the leaves and the vines from which it came.6-24 Hummel Love